


jam #04: Concern and Conviction

by PokeNirvash



Series: Kinky Kunoichi [4]
Category: Jam-Orbital, Original Work
Genre: Bondage, Detective Work, Gen, Jam-Gagging, Kidnapping, Lawlharem, Over-the-Nose (OTN) Masks, Tokyo (City)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 15:08:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19793437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PokeNirvash/pseuds/PokeNirvash
Summary: Despite the different natures of their respective investigations, Naokuu and Shin have reached the same conclusion: that the latter's harem of admirers are the most likely suspects in Muchise's disappearance. Naokuu heads to Sadameicho High to meet the girls himself and see if his theory holds any salt, unaware of Shin's intentions for a more direct confrontation...





	1. Prologue

“Alright, students, as you know, the fall semester starts today. And as always, that means it’s time for you all to change seats. Personally, I’d do random assignment, but as proven in the past, that only breeds all sorts of trouble. So to avoid any major conflict, you’re free to sit wherever you want. But _please_ , _try_ to be civil about this. That’s all I ask.”

Holding a handbook flipped open to a certain page in his right hand, the homeroom teacher of class 3-A at Sadameicho Public High School – a lightly tanned man in his early 40s with black-rimmed glasses and a thin but short and neatly kempt goatee, dressed in blue dress pants and a white work shirt with sleeves rolled up – spoke to the thirty students of that class as they sat and listened to his announcement. The female half, numbering over ten but less than exactly half listened with attention, as did some of the males, but several of the latter party appeared disinterested, either leaning back in their chairs with one arm over the back, legs spread or both, or they just stared at the ceiling or out the windows lining the one side of the room.

Regardless of their reaction, once the teacher finished his announcement, the students got up and started moving their desks around, the creaking of the metal-legged tables and their respective chairs forming a subdued cacophony of noise throughout the room. Not many students chose to go near the windowed wall – in fact, plenty of them appeared to be moving away from it – but some took that option, one of which was Shin Kizuka.

“There we are,” Shin said to himself as he pulled his desk back into his desired spot. “Second row from the back, next to the window.” He pulled out his chair and sat down, placing his left elbow on the desk and resting his head against his hand as he turned to look out the window, also the second from the back. “Couldn’t pick a more perfect seat to finish high school in if I _tried_.” He closed his eyes, smiling to himself in satisfaction at his pick. This Shin was different, in a way. He was happier, more relaxed. Even taking the nature of his school into consideration, this Shin was at peace with where he was in that moment, unaware of the classmates approaching him.

“Excuse me.”

“Huh?” Shin opened his eyes and turned his head forward, his smile fading.

“You’re Shin Kizuka, right?”

“Yeah,” Shin nodded as he lowered his support arm and let it rest on the desk. “That’s my name.”

Standing across from Shin, grouped about a foot away from the corner of his desk, were three female classmates. The one asking the question had blonde hair, closer to yellow than any other color and done up in twin ponytails, with her hand on her hip; to her left was a girl of the same height with powder blue pigtails, bouncing on the balls of her feet with her hands behind her back; and to her right was a girl slightly shorter than them both with a brown bob cut and oval-lensed glasses. Yukisa, Utsugi and Shirei.

Before Yukisa could respond to Shin’s reply, Shirei squealed in delight as she placed her hands on the blonde’s right shoulder and shook her around some. “See! I _told_ you it was him! I just _told_ you!”

Yukisa grunted as Shirei shook her, turning to her in annoyance and pushing her arms off of her. “I _get_ it, Kikuguchi, knock it off. You don’t have to keep rubbing it in my face, you smartass.”

“Oh, _you’re_ just jealous ‘cause I was _right_!”

Yukisa scoffed. “Shut up.”

Shirei simply giggled in response.

All Utsugi did as the two semi-playfully chatted with one another was glance over at them with a slight pucker to her lips. Shin watched too, a look of immediate exhaustion of having to listen to them plastered across his face. He lowered his head and sighed before looking back up at them. “What is it you girls _want_?”

“Ah!” Yukisa gasped as Shin responded to her, a blush spreading across her face. She hid it within seconds to the best of her ability, closing her eyes and bringing her hand to her mouth as she cleared her throat. As she returned her one hand to join the other just in front of her skirt, she shifted her shoulders around a she eked out a response. “Well, you see, Kizuka, we were just wondering, since this is the big seat change and all, if we could, well, you know…” Her eyes moved back and forth between Shin and the ground as she meandered her way around what she was really trying to ask.

As Yukisa’s dialogue slowly softened into a quiet mutter that surely danced around the question further, Shirei glanced at her, a small but very much smug grin on her face. “What’re you waiting for? Go on and say it!”

“I _will_! Don’t _rush_ me!” Yukisa exclaimed in frustration, prompting a giggle of amusement out of Shirei.

Utsugi, on the other hand, just stood still in wait, gradually growing impatient with how long it took for the class president to get to the point. The under-the-breath growl of impatience she let out as she waited soon reached its highest notes, and by the time Yukisa finished her interjection, she could take it no longer, rushing straight to Shin’s desk and slamming her hands down on it as she looked him square in the face.

“Please, _please_ let us all sit next to you, Shin!” the pigtailed girl exclaimed with a near-explosive burst of energy.

“Eh?” Shin blinked once at Utsugi, processing her request; rather, the request Yukisa was trying to give him herself. One second passed, and then he reacted properly, backing his head away in shock with wide eyes and a much more exaggerated vocalization. “Huuuuuuuh!? Y-You want to… _what_!?” Apparently he was still processing.

Utsugi blinked once as she observed Shin’s reaction, moving back from his desk and standing up straight as she returned to her previous standing position, only with her arms hanging by her sides this time. Shirei smiled some in amusement at his flustered response, while Yukisa looked on with one hand on her hip and a dour expression on her face.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t hear what she said just now… Moron.” She looked off to the side in annoyance.

“It’s not that, I _totally_ heard what she said! It’s just…” Shin rubbed the back of his head, blushing in embarrassment at being put on the spot as he glanced down at his lap. “I just can’t imagine why all three of you would wanna sit next to someone as bland and uninteresting as me…”

“There’s no harm in it, is there?”

Shin jumped at the sudden soft-spoken voice coming from the right of his desk. With a grunt, he immediately turned to see who was there. A girl with short lime green hair and bright red eyes, squatting next to the boy’s desk with her arms crossed and resting on the side. Akari.

She looked up at Shin with a lazy half-lidded gaze, her mouth appearing to be neither smiling nor frowning. “After all, it’s the least we can do, to repay you for helping us out.”

At Akari’s words, the other girls’ expressions got softer and more loving. Utsugi looked at Shin and smiled enough to make it a toothy grin, Shirei did the same with a smile bearing no ill will in the slightest, and Yukisa turned her head back some, glancing at him as her stern frown perked up into a small but approving smile.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

And like that, the softness was disrupted. With a blink, Utsugi’s grin vanished. Shirei’s own smile downturned into a simple frown. Yukisa got angry, her brows furrowing as she started growling behind her clenched teeth. As for Akari, her mouth of indeterminate expression widened slightly to an obvious frown and her eyebrows angled upwards in sadness. “Oh…”

Shin’s left elbow was back on the desktop, his head resting in his corresponding hand as he closed his eyes and scowled with frustration. “Believe me, I don’t recall helping _any_ of you. And if I _did_ , I just _forgot_ , alright?”

As Shin explained himself – or rather, in spite of him explaining himself – Yukisa only grew angrier, her fists clenching as her growl intensified. Utsugi and Shirei’s gazes moved towards her in concern, as if her expression was building up to something much harsher to come.

“You little _idiot_!” Yukisa exclaimed loudly as she rushed towards Shin, only to be held back by the quick-acting Utsugi and Shirei. “I can’t _believe_ you just _forgot_ about us! Why, I oughta write you up for this!” She let out several struggled groans as she thrashed her arms in an array of punches that failed to land, the other two girls nervously closing their eyes and grunting softly as they kept her in place. Akari looked over at the three silently, while Shin remained in the same position he always had, Yukisa’s explosive reply having no effect on him.

“Oh dear. So you don’t remember _any_ of us?”

The voice coming from behind Shin, coupled with the feeling of the speaker’s large, uniform-clad breasts gently resting themselves atop his head, however, _did_. Shin’s eyes bugged out and a soft grunt of surprise escaped his mouth. Standing behind his chair and leaning over him with closed eyes was another female classmate, obviously still in high school but womanlier than the other four in voice, assets and mannerisms. Violet hair tied back into a ponytail with a pink ribbon, a low-pointing cowlick, magenta eyes, and a beauty mark near her left eye. Chikuru.

“That’s a real shame~.”

“ _Another_ one!?” Shin exclaimed in delayed surprise as he turned to face Chikuru, who at the same time pulled away from him and walked over to his left, glancing down at him and giggling almost seductively.

“Still, I hope you’ll remember it eventually. But until then…” She squatted down and placed her hands on Shin’s shoulder, leaning in and speaking softly but audibly. “Let’s just enjoy the time we’ll be spending together, okay, Shin sweetie~?”

Shin backed his head away from Chikuru as much as it could go, nervously looking at her with an uncomfortable glower before glancing back at Akari. She looked up at him, still with that disappointed beggy expression from moments earlier. Then he looked forward at the last three. Yukisa had stopped thrashing but was now glaring angrily at Shin, while Utsugi and Shirei, still holding onto her arms, looked at him with the same expectation-filled eyes as Akari, frowning just as she did. As he looked at the last three, Shin groaned behind his breath in defeat.

“ _Okay_ …” he reluctantly sighed.

That response was enough to lift the other girls’ spirits. Yukisa blinked in surprise, her angry expression disappearing in an instant, while Shirei simply smiled with a soft grunt and Utsugi grinned wide again, giggling under her breath.

“Thank you, Shin~!” Utsugi exclaimed as she then leapt forwards towards Shin. As soon as they saw her coming, Chikuru backed away in surprise and Akari ducked for cover as her fingertips pressed against the edge of the desk, but Shin could only cower for a split second before Utsugi embraced him at full force. He yelped as her arms wrapped around his upper body in a hugging embrace, the girl’s body rotating around as she landed on her feet behind him. Once back on the floor, she hugged him and his chair tightly from behind, rubbing her left cheek up against his right. “Thank you so, _so_ much! Oh, I can hardly thank you _enough_ right now!”

Shin grunted, his right eye closing as he glanced back at Utsugi with the open one.

Chikuru smiled again with a soft chuckle, while Akari brought her head back up, smiling as a blush came across her face. “I’m glad you finally came around to us, Shin.”

Shirei smirked, backing away from Yukisa and pushing her glasses up with her middle digit. “Hn. _Please_ , I _knew_ he was gonna relent sooner or later.”

Yukisa snapped out of her surprised daze from Shin’s accepting reply, her annoyed expression from before returning with a blink. “Hmph. I _guess_ I’ll let you off the hook this one time…” She stepped forward, heading the desk next to Shin’s.

“Come on, everyone!” Chikuru called out to the other girls as she pulled out a silver smartphone from Shin’s desk drawer, walking around the boy’s desk with it in hand. “Let’s take a picture to celebrate us becoming Shin’s deskmates!”

Shin realized what Chikuru had done seconds after she did it and called out to her just as she finished her exclamation. “Hey, that’s my phone!”

Not listening, Chikuru held the phone up above her and winked at the screen. “Say cheese~!”

Shin closed his eyes and looked down in further defeat. “Why _me_?”

The phone’s camera flashed, and the group selfie was taken, just like that.

“Perfect! Now then, we should probably sit down before we get in trouble,” Chikuru said as she set Shin’s phone face-down on his desk.

“Yeah,” Utsugi cheerfully agreed.

Without further comment, the girls started heading back to their desks. All the other students somehow managed to get themselves arranged and seated where they wanted in the time it took for them all to converse, and now they were doing the same. Shirei sauntered over to the desk directly in front of Shin, while Akari took the desk next to Shirei’s. Yukisa quickly settled down in the desk to Shin’s right, Utsugi got comfortable in the seat behind hers, and Chikuru took the remaining desk around Shin’s, all the way in back.

**“I always had my feelings about those five, right from the moment we first met.”**

Shin was somewhat relieved to be mostly free of the girls’ closeness to him, but was still exhausted from what transpired in those few minutes. Without a word, he picked up his phone and turned it on, pressing a few buttons onscreen. He grimaced at the sight that ultimately befell his screen.

**“I knew in my gut that they were nothing but trouble.”**

The picture taken not moments earlier. Shin was right in the middle, sitting at his desk and looking down at it with closed eyes. Utsugi was behind him, hugging him tight in spite of the back of the chair standing between them, grinning the widest she had in their whole early morning encounter, also with closed eyes. Akari stayed at the edge of the desk, her hands on the edge and her head popping up to expose her admiring blush. Shirei popped in from the bottom left corner, smiling wide as she held up a peace sign. Yukisa was a few steps away from the corner of Shin’s desk, to his right in that instant, crossing her arms and staring at Shin with her as-always aloof frown. And of course, the one who took the picture, Chikuru, took up the image’s right corner with her sexy wink and equally seductive smile.

**“If I had trusted that gut feeling, maybe I would’ve come to that conclusion sooner than I actually had.”**

Just as Shin looked at that picture for the first time at his desk in the September of 2083, he looked at it once more in the peace and quiet of his bedroom in the March of 2084. The room was dark, save for the dim light of the night sky coming in through the slit formed by his window curtains. That, plus the bright glow of his smartphone as he glossed over that “commemoration” picture.

**“That of all possible suspects, _they_ were the ones who kidnapped Muchise.”**

Dressed in the shirt and cotton pants combo he normally wore when he retired for the evening, Shin sat cross-legged in his bed, staring down at the image with a great intensity. He kept up his glare for a moment or two more, and then…

**“I never thought I’d have reached this point so soon. But now that I _have_ , and now that I know who I’m up against…”**

His glare narrowed decisively, his scowl widening ever so slightly. He pressed a button on the back of his phone, and the screen went black, leaving him in what little light remained.

**“There’s one more thing for me to do.”**


	2. Act 1

“Sorry to keep you waiting, gentlemen.”

The waitress bowed to her customers as she reached their table during her rounds, greeting them in a pleasant manner. Her long and fluffy light brown hair bounced as she stood up straight following the bow, the pink headband in her hair keeping it from swaying too much. Beyond her hair, she also had pink-colored eyes, enhanced by her mascara-thickened lashes and her red-violet eyeshadow, extending up to just below her eyebrows; a line of freckles across the bridge of her nose and the cheeks on either side; and a pair of thick, kissable lips emphasized further by her pink lipstick. Her work uniform was short-sleeved and vertically striped in spite of having the same pale pink beige color throughout. A purple bow with a heart-shaped ornament in the center was attached to the uniform’s top just above her breasts, while a black waist apron was tied over her lap, covering the uniform’s skirt which went down to her mid-thighs. Finishing off her outfit were a pair of stockings ending an inch or two above the knee with the same body-ribbon color combo as her top and black high heels with a thicker heel than usual, and as a more personal touch, she also wore earrings with a pink heart hanging off each by a centimeter.

“Are you two ready to order?” She pulled out a pen and pad of paper, preparing herself to write their orders down.

“Yes, I believe we are,” Yokoshima replied, setting down his laminated menu. “I’ll have the grilled chicken with tomato salad, and a raspberry basil lemonade.”

“Alright,” the waitress said as she wrote it down, then turning to her other customer. “And _you_ , sir?”

“Let’s see…” Naokuu tapped his menu with his index finger a few times, his eyes soon landing on what he wanted to eat. “Stewed beef and potatoes, and an iced tea.” He handed his menu off to the waitress, who took it after taking his order down.

“Alrighty. I’ll get your orders out to you when they’re ready.” She bowed again to the two men.

“Thank you,” Yokoshima lightly bowed back to the waitress.

Naokuu just nodded in thanks, grunting softly.

With the pair’s menus in hand, the waitress walked off to her next table. As she did, Yokoshima turned back to Naokuu. “I’ve gotta say, this is a nice place you picked for lunch today, Naokuu.”

“You think so?”

The restaurant the two had chosen to dine at was indeed a nice locale, as far as what could be told from the inside. The windows allowed plenty of light into the restaurant, mostly eliminating the need for indoor lighting during the early afternoon hours, but small cylindrical lights hanging by metal poles from the black-painted structural ceiling, which exposed the ductwork running through the upper portion of the establishment, were turned on anyways. They were at a dim setting, though, to account for what additional brightness was missing from today’s dulled natural light. The walls, too, were black, but only the top halves; the bottom halves had a wood-grain pattern that matched the floor, the short slats arranged in such a manner to emulate the layout of brick walls. Spread evenly throughout the main space were various places to sit; brown leather booths for two or four, square tables with a chair for each edge, and smaller tables for just two along the windows, all with napkin dispensers plus bottles and shakers for the basic condiments and seasonings. These tables were about 75% filled overall, the majority of diners being couples both young and middle-aged. There was the occasional lone customer, and the slightly more frequent married pair with a small child not old enough to be in even preschool, but they were clearly more minor in comparison. A number of those seated were dining on various dishes they ordered, from familiar Japanese fare like noodle bowls and curry rice to more foreign cuisine like burgers and fries and large salads acting as the main dish. Those who _weren’t_ eating were either being waited on by one of the several waitresses on the floor, dressed in the same outfit as the one from before, or biding time for either service or their meals.

“It’s a _little_ exotic for my tastes, but the aesthetic’s comfortable enough to make up for it.”

Of all those customers, Naokuu and Yokoshima were in the minority party, dining as co-workers, and sat at a two-chair table next to one of the large curtainless windows looking out onto the adjacent streetside thoroughfare. Both men were dressed in their work clothes; Naokuu in a white dress shirt and dark blue pants with a tie of the same color, his black jacket hung over his chair inside-out; and Yokoshima in his usual brown suit and dark blue tie. The former looked to his right as he sat, at the other customers of the restaurant.

“I can see how it got all those five-star reviews.” He turned back to look at Yokoshima. “Not to mention the food here’s super-affordable, so all the more reason to go.”

“I agree, their prices are surprisingly low for their high reputation. Though it _does_ make a lot of sense.”

Naokuu blinked in confusion. “ _What_ does?”

Yokoshima shot Naokuu a cheeky grin, bordering on conniving. “Why you’d bother to treat me to lunch when you can barely pay off all those parking tickets of yours…” He snickered with amusement.

“C’mon, sir, that’s a low blow!” Naokuu sighed. “Still, I insist on it.” He looked back up, smiling a little more. “You were kind enough to let me have some of Machise’s cooking yesterday, it’s only natural that I return the favor.”

Yokoshima nodded, his grin having shrunk back down to a regular, genuine smile. “Hm, true.” He looked down at the laminate wood tabletop, a slight worry overcoming his face. “Then again, you offered so suddenly, I’m not sure what to do with the lunch I’d already packed this morning.”

“If you want, _I_ could take it off your hands.”

Yokoshima looked back up at Naokuu. “Even though you’ve got last night’s leftovers at home?”

“Oh, sure.” Naokuu then grinned as wide as he could, resting his chin on the back of his hand. “That is, if someone hasn’t stolen it out of your locker already…” He closed his eyes and sniggered devilishly.

Yokoshima sighed, a drop of sweat appearing on the side of his head. “Returning the favor in more ways than _one_ , I see.”

“Um, excuse me, sirs,” the waitress cheerfully spoke as she returned to the pair’s table, snapping them out of their reactions. “I’ve got your drinks here for you.” She took a glass of iced tea off the tray she carried with her, a lemon wedge fitted on the rim, and set it in front of Naokuu.

“Oh, thanks,” Naokuu replied.

“Thank you very much,” Yokoshima said, nodding to the waitress.

The waitress simply smiled, closing her eyes and giggling as she placed Yokoshima’s drink on the table. The reddish-pink liquid that was his lemonade had ice in it, like Naokuu’s tea, plus a basil leaf suspended under the layers of ice. As the glass made contact with the table, the ice shifted around ever so slightly.

The arrival of their refreshments reminded the two men that, as far as the staff and other patrons knew, they were here to enjoy this lunch outing, first and foremost. Here at this restaurant in Akasaka, housed inside the first floor of a three-story brick building in the middle of the pedestrian block, the metal framework in front of the windows and ivy from the nearby stone planter around the building wrapping around it covering the windows but not completely enough to badly obscure the view outside onto the brick-laid street and the grey but not at all gloomy sky above. Here at this restaurant, its name displayed on the brick above the covered entrance, in white channel letters. RESTORAN TAMASHII, or Restaurant Spirit.

Time passed by inside the restaurant after Naokuu and Yokoshima received their drinks. It wasn’t enough that their food came out in seemingly no time at all, but it was plenty that they were partially done with their drinks; Yokoshima finished half of his, while Naokuu was down to just a quarter of what he started with, most of it ice. It was enough time that a couple tables were emptied out, at least one being tidied up by one of the waitresses, and that another couple in their 20s was being led to one of the other empty tables, with a “Right this way,” from the hostess, dressed in a similar outfit to the waitresses but with a black chest ribbon instead of a purple one. And it was enough time that the two were ready to talk something other than idle chit-chat.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Here,” Naokuu said as he took something out of his pocket and held it out for Yokoshima across the table: Muchise’s cell phone.

“Hn. Thank you,” Yokoshima replied as he took the phone, putting it in his right suit pocket. “I take it you found what you needed on there?”

“If you’re talkin’ about hints, then yeah, I found plenty. What’s more, I also managed to pinpoint a couple of prime suspects.” He picked up his glass of iced tea and drank what liquid remained through the straw.

“Really? You _did_?”

“Mm-hmm.” Naokuu nodded once.

“That’s great!” Yokoshima quietly exclaimed with as much joy as the big picture would allow. “So who _are_ they? Can we take ‘em?”

“Hold your horses, Mr. Yokoshima,” Naokuu replied, setting his glass down before rummaging through his other pants pocket. “It’s a little more complicated than that.” He pulled out his smartphone and pressed a button in back, turning the screen on.

“Oh. Right, my bad.” Yokoshima calmed down, leaning back in his seat.

“Remember what I said about this stemming from a grudge against Muchise? Well, if that theory’s correct…” Naokuu tapped the screen of his phone several times as he spoke, ultimately coming upon what he was looking for. Once he did, he turned the phone around and pointed it at Yokoshima. “…I think _these_ girls are the most likely culprits.”

Yokoshima leaned forward a little, looking at the screen as it was displayed to him. Not two seconds passed before he gasped at the sight on-screen. “T-These are the ones…?”

“Personally, I find it rather clever.”

It was the commemoration picture. Yukisa, Utsugi, Shirei, Akari and Chikuru all surrounding Shin and his desk.

“That a couple classmates would be behind your daughter vanishing without a trace.”

Yokoshima looked at the picture for a few more moments, his eyes wide and trembling. “No way…” He blinked, his gaze moving up to Naokuu. “I’d have guessed _one_ person holding a grudge against her, but not _five_!”

“Yeah, I’ll admit that’s kind of a stretch. Hell, I can’t be certain even _one_ of the five is responsible, but that doesn’t change the fact they’re the main suspects here.” Naokuu turned the phone around and tilted it on its back, looking down at the screen. “When I was digging through Muchise’s phone last night, I came across several messages referencing these girls, hinting at a sort of mutual dislike towards her, or at least suspicion of such an attitude. Either way, they all had a connection to this boy right here.” He turned the phone to Yokoshima again, pointing at Shin’s suffocated and embarrassed expression. “You know him, sir?”

“Yeah, that’s Shin Kizuka. A family friend of ours, and one of Muchise’s closest.”

“I see.” Naokuu closed his eyes, lowering the phone face-down onto the table. “Well, I imagine this ‘Shin’ has something to do with Muchise’s disappearance, more in reasoning than in involvement.” He opened his eyes, leaning back in his chair as he looked at the picture again. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that reasoning had to do with how _close_ the girls appear to be with him. Lord knows I could only handle so much invasion of personal space…”

“So what’ll you do now?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m gonna hit up their school after work, see if I can find at least one of them. I’ll ask ‘em a couple questions, nothing too personal, to see if my theory holds any more salt. Hopefully, they’ll have Muchise. If not, then it’s back to square one.”

“And how are you gonna get them to talk?”

“Hm…” Naokuu glanced at Yokoshima for a moment before pulling out another item. “With _this_.”

That item was a black leather flip-pouch, flipped open to reveal the contents inside. The upper half contained an ID badge bearing a formal photo of him in a police uniform. Below the photo, it read as follows:

探偵三位

頼柴直空

Detective Third Rank

Naokuu Tanoshiba

The bottom half contained a standard issue police badge, with the words “渋谷区警察”, or “Shibuya Police” under the National Police Agency’s logo.

“Seriously!?” Yokoshima exclaimed, pressing his hands against the edge of the table as he stood up and leaned in to face Naokuu. “You _do_ remember this investigation isn’t valid, right? You can’t use official authority under these circumstances, even if it _is_ behind Gojiki’s back!”

“So? If it’s behind Gojiki’s back, then there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“But what if those girls find out you’re working outside proper jurisdiction? What _then_?”

“The chances of that are _pretty_ unlikely.” Naokuu flipped his badge closed and put it away.

“But they still _exist_ , don’t they!?” Yokoshima sat down, his expression more concerned than angry. “Dammit, Naokuu, just think of the _risk_ you’re taking with this!”

“You think I _don’t_ know the risks!?”

Yokoshima recoiled in surprise and even more concern at Naokuu’s sudden outburst, groaning some behind his breath in worry. Naokuu glared at Yokoshima with intensity for a few seconds, slowly breathing through his nostrils as he calmed himself down from that spastic surge of defense. Once calm, he blinked and smiled at Yokoshima, showing him that he was still the same Naokuu he always was.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Yokoshima, I’ve got everything under control. This won’t require anything more than me showing my badge. If it _does_ , I’ll work a way around it so the higher-ups aren’t involved. That sound good?”

“Yeah, I guess…” Yokoshima replied with a nervous nod, glancing out the window at the people passing by on the thoroughfare. “I should’ve figured even _without_ the yakuza involved, finding Muchise wasn’t gonna be all that safe a task…”

“Let’s not dwell on that _too_ much, sir. At least, save it for after we eat.”

Just as Naokuu said that, the waitress returned to the table, carrying a tray with a number of plates on it and setting it down on a wooden tray stand she brought with her. “Sorry to keep you waiting, gentlemen. Here’s your food.”

“Thanks,” Naokuu replied.

With another soft giggle filtered through that same smile she had throughout her service to the two men, the waitress placed both plates on the table without any further word. Before Yokoshima was a plate with four yakitori skewers and a matching porcelain cup containing a medley of tomato and onion slices. Naokuu's plate, meanwhile, acted as the base for a bowl containing _his_ dish, which had beef slices and potato chunks, alongside carrot, onion, and snow peas, atop a hill of noodles wading in a barely-visible brown broth.

“Enjoy your meals,” the waitress said as she bowed and walked off, bringing the tray stand with her.

“Sure thing!” Naokuu called out to her as she walked off. After that, he turned back to Yokoshima. “Looks good, doesn’t it?”

“It _does_.”

“Then we shouldn’t waste any time with it either. What do you say? Care to relax and save your concerns for when they matter most?” Naokuu asked Yokoshima with genuine intent to dine instead of continuing the conversation.

Yokoshima looked down at his dish for a few seconds, taking it in before looking up at Naokuu and nodding once more with a smile lacking determination but containing confidence regardless. “Very well, Naokuu. Let’s eat.”

“Hn. I thought so.”

Following his senior’s response, Naokuu’s gaze returned down to his phone as he pressed the power button in back for a few seconds. Above the commemoration picture popped up a white screen with two choices: パワーダウン, Power Down, or リスタート, Restart. His thumb came down on the former selection, which lit up in black before the screen cut away.

********

“This is unbelievable!” Yukisa exclaimed.

“For once, I agree with you,” Shirei bluntly replied.

It was 3 in the afternoon at Sadameicho High, the tune of Westminster Chimes and increased presence of students in the hallways further indicating the end of the day’s classes. As the majority of Class 3-A emptied out into the adjacent vinyl-floored hall, the glass shards from the broken window cleaned up but the window itself unreplaced, Shin’s admirers remained in the classroom, surrounding the boy’s desk. He wasn’t there, nor were any of his belongings.

“So he’s been gone all day?” Utsugi asked.

“Seems that way,” Akari said with a nod.

Yukisa let out a quiet growl under her breath as she stared down at the empty desk. “That idiot’s got a lot of nerve, skipping out on class unannounced like this! He’s lucky this doesn’t affect his chances of graduating…”

“I just don’t get it,” Chikuru mused. Sitting at her desk – the only one of the five to do so – she rested her cheek against her right hand as she gazed longingly at Shin’s desk. “He looked so _cheerful_ yesterday, but now he’s just up and vanished on us?”

“Kind of like Yokoshima,” Akari chimed in.

“Well he _did_ disappear for half of yesterday too,” Shirei said.

Utsugi looked off to the side, putting her index finger to her lips. “Maybe he’s sick?”

“If he _was_ , this absence wouldn’t be unexcused,” Yukisa commented, calming down from her earlier fervor.

“Whatever the case, I don’t think he’ll be away for long.” Shirei took a step forward, extending just her index finger. “Consider this; with exams coming up, he’ll probably stop by the library to do a bit of studying. So let’s go down there and do some studying _ourselves_ , and if he shows up as predicted, we ask him what the deal was with his absence today!”

Akari grunted softly as she turned to Shirei. “I’m up for it.”

“Yeah!” Utsugi cheerfully nodded. “Sounds like fun!”

Chikuru chuckled softly, blushing. “A _lot_ of fun~.”

“What the hell…” Yukisa admitted with the slightest reluctance, turning her head to face Shirei as well. “Let’s give it a shot.”

“Excellent!” Shirei announced. “We’ve got no time to waste with this, so let’s go!”

“Right!” the other girls replied.

As the girls got ready to head for the library, hoping that Shin would show up on campus, they remained unaware that he was already there. He was on the roof, dressed in his school uniform with the blazer unbuttoned, looking out to the north as he stood close to the chain-link fence surrounding its perimeter. There were a couple other students out there, either smoking or loitering, with Shin falling in with the latter. His left hand grabbed onto the fence, each of his digits assigned to one of its several metal diamond-shaped holes. He stared out into the distance for a few minutes, the breezy air lightly blowing his hair around, and then he shifted his arm some so the sleeve fell down past his wrist. He glanced down at his digital wristwatch, exposed by the shifted sleeve. The time as displayed was 15:05, or 3:05 P.M.

“It’s time.”

********

With a turn of the handle and the click that accompanied the automatic unlock triggered by that motion, the driver’s side door of Naokuu’s car swung open as he stepped out onto the asphalt surface of the parking lot he pulled into. It was a small lot consisting of three spaces facing the sparingly used one-way street, and his Civic was in the middle spot. Either way, as he stepped out, he got the perfect view of his destination.

“So this is Sadameicho Senior High.”

His right hand on the open car door and a near-finished cigarette in his mouth, he looked out at the four-story high school, white with windows lining the exterior, the property itself surrounded by a one-story stone wall with an open gate. This was more of a side entrance than the main gate, so the school itself was in the distance relative to the edge of the street. Even so, there were several students surrounding this entrance. A good number of the portion he came across in that moment appeared to be leaving campus, heading home after a day they didn’t want to make any longer with extracurriculars. Others loitered around the stone walls, stained with graffiti that made the otherwise drab-brown structures pop. They were artistic first, written in bad English second, and almost always incomprehensible regardless.

“I can’t even _imagine_ why she’d choose to go to this dump…” He pressed a button inside the door of his car, a quiet mechanical click sounding before he closed it, then reaching up and pulling his cig out of his mouth to exhale some more smoke. “Welp, I’ve got no time to waste.” He tapped his cigarette once and dropped it to the ground, grinding it into the asphalt with the front heel of his shoe. After completing that simple action, Naokuu walked up to the side entrance to Sadameicho High, his hands in his pockets and his intentions as clear as could be.

********

At the same time, Shin started heading down from the roof. He had already gone down two full flights of stairs, from the roof to the third floor, and now, he was standing in the near-empty Class 3-A. Most of the students there were gone, with only a pair of male students chatting with one another near the front of the class. They didn’t seem to be paying attention to Shin, which was all the better for him. He didn’t need their attention, not now. He stood over his desk, free of the presence of the five girls that were there before. After looking at it with a blank face for what felt like hours but was no more than a few seconds, he raised his head, his restless gaze turning towards what laid beyond the window. Not the sky, as was his preferred view during class, but another wing of the school building.

It was there, on the second floor to his left side, that he saw them. His quintet of admirers, entering a room with a counter at the entrance, tables with multiple chairs by the windows, and rows of shelves filled with books closer to the opposite wall, running perpendicular to it. The school’s library. It appeared that they were the only ones there, at least from what could be seen through the curtain-drawn windows. Yukisa and Shirei entered first, with Utsugi and Chikuru behind them, and Akari in back.

“ _There…_ ” Shin thought to himself as his glare narrowed, turning away from the window as he resumed his search, now with a clear destination.

********

“And then he just started _staring_ at me, and for no reason!”

“Oh, come on, you know you love it~.”

Elsewhere in the building, two female students were chatting by the wall just a few paces down from the shoe lockers at the front entrance. The first girl had long brown hair done up in a high ponytail that went down to just above her butt, yellowish-brown eyes, a large chest just barely pushing past I-cups, and a cute face. Her friend, meanwhile, had red hair done up in pigtails, purple eyes, a slightly smaller stature and chest, and an equally cute face, as well as silver-colored cross-shaped earrings. Both wore the school’s uniform, though the ponytailed girl had hers unbuttoned some around the chest area, exposing the white blouse underneath.

At the redhead’s teasing comment and pointing gesture, the ponytailed girl groaned softly under her breath, glancing off to the side and blushing as she crossed her arms.

“Excuse me.”

The girls both let out a “Hm?”, the brunet one tinged with annoyance and the redhead one with curiosity, as they turned to the person calling their attention.

“Sorry to interrupt your conversation, ladies,” Naokuu said. “But I was wondering if you two could help me out.”

********

Up in the library, the five girls were in the middle of their stakeout of sorts, even though their focus was more on studying than waiting for Shin. They sat at one of the four multi-person tables between the windows and shelves, the only occupied table of the lot. Of the six available chairs, they sat in five of them. Yukisa sat at the end of one of the tables, with a book opened to a middle page resting on the surface before her. She glanced away from the text to look at Utsugi, who was snoozing over her own open book. Without a word, she raised her hand and gently but swiftly tapped the napping girl on the top of her head, waking her up instantly. As she looked around in an energetic daze, Yukisa frowned at her sternly, while Chikuru, sitting next to Utsugi with her own open book, simply chuckled in amusement at the girl’s reaction. Across from the latter two girls were Shirei and Akari, the two of them sharing an open book. The former pointed at the text as she ran her index finger across it, explaining parts of it to the latter girl, who nodded with each exposition.

********

“You see, I’m looking for these five girls, all third-years. They’ve all got different hair colors – blonde, blue, green, purple, brown with glasses – and they’re friends with this tired-looking black-haired kid. Any of that ring a bell?”

“Hmm…” The red-headed girl put her hands behind her back and glanced off to the side. “I _know_ who you’re talking about, but I can’t say I know where they are, sorry,” she confessed with a shrug.

“What business do you have asking us this, anyways?” the ponytailed girl questioned with annoyance. “There’s no way I’m gonna tell some smelly older man where to find a bunch of high school girls for who-knows- _what_ reason, you big creep…”

All Naokuu could do was stare at the girl, unamused with her interrogative claims. “Oh boy, you’re one of _those_ types…” He sighed, reaching inside his jacket. “Never thought I’d pull it out _this_ early…”

Both girls blushed at Naokuu’s inadvertently suggestive claim, the brunet cringing in fear and disgust with the slightest hint of anticipation while the redhead let a small, borderline enthusiastic smile slip.

Just as he was about to pull out his badge and say the words…

“I–”

“They’re in the library on the second floor.”

Naokuu gasped as he turned around to find another schoolgirl standing behind him, leaning against the wall with arms crossed and one foot against the aging plaster wall. Long lime green hair, cool red eyes with thick lashes, a beauty mark under her right eye, black piercings on her upper ears, C-cup breasts, and a dust mask around her neck. It was no mistake that this girl was Sadameicho’s gorgeous second-year info broker, Renge Soroda.

Smirking wide with a small chuckle, she opened her eyes as she looked right at the detective. “You better get there while you still can, otherwise they’ll be gone before you know it.”

“Right!” Naokuu said as he turned to Renge and bowed. “Thanks a lot!”

“Not a problem.”

As she returned his thanks, Naokuu turned around and rushed past the other two girls, heading for the main stairwell. The redhead quickly sidestepped the detective as he moved past, but the brunet yelped as she got out of the way on her end, then turning to Renge in further annoyance.

“What the _hell_ , Renge!? Why’d you tell them where they were!?”

“Yeah,” the other girl chimed in. “It’s not like you to give away information for free.”

“What can I say?” Renge replied with a shrug, looking up at the ceiling with a thoughtful gleam in her eyes. “Maybe I’m getting soft. Or maybe... Maybe I’m just in a helpful mood today.”

********

In no time at all, Naokuu had made his way up to the second floor of the school building, jogging his way through the hall as he made it into the building’s south wing. The third door he came across on his right had a sign above it; the sign he was looking for. 図書館. The library. He slowed to a stop as he came upon it, sighing once or twice to catch his breath.

“There it is. Alright, time to _do_ this.” He turned to face the door and stepped forward, opening it up and going inside. Seconds passed in the empty hall as the door slowly swung shut, and another student turned the corner and entered the corridor…

********

“I’m telling you, you _need_ to focus if you want to do good on this test, Kawaoshi.”

“Yeah, I _know_ …” Utsugi bemoaned at Yukisa’s lecture, her head still resting on the pages of her textbook. “But it’s just so _much_!”

“All the more reason to focus.” Yukisa closed her eyes as she raised her index finger for emphasis.

All Utsugi could do at Yukisa’s statement was groan in complaint.

“Good, you’re all here.”

The masculine voice coming from behind the girls caught their attention. Yukisa and Utsugi perked up, both grunting softly as they turned to face the man behind them, while Shirei, Akari and Chikuru just glanced over at him without moving their heads much.

In spite of his statement coming off as pleased in a self-serving way, Naokuu’s smile was more nice and cooperative than anything else. “Now then, you girls are…” Naokuu trailed off for a second as he looked down at a scrap of computer paper he had in his hand, bearing names scrawled out in black ballpoint pen.

うつぎ ゆきさ

しれい ちくる

あかり

“…Utsugi, Yukisa, Shirei, Chikuru, and Akari… right?” He lowered the paper as he looked at the girls.

Yukisa stood up from her seat and stared Naokuu down, her brow furrowing. “Yeah, those are our names. What’s it to _you_?”

“Heh.” Naokuu grinned wide as he reached inside his jacket and pulled out his black flip-pouch, opening it to expose his ID card and badge. “I’m Detective Naokuu Tanoshiba with the Shibuya Police. I came all the way down here to see you girls.”

“Oh yeah? About _what_?” Yukisa asked with growing disgust.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the shelves spanning the library’s length, the student who entered the hallway after Naokuu walked along the rows, starting at the main entrance and going back. He stopped as soon as he saw Yukisa talking with the detective at the end of one of the rows, watching them in silence.

“Oh, nothing much,” Naokuu replied to Yukisa. “I just want to ask you a few questions about the recent disappearance of Muchise Yokoshima.”

“Hey look, it’s Shin!” Utsugi suddenly exclaimed. She opened one eye and saw it as Naokuu was in the middle of his sentence, and the call to attention that accompanied the spirited rise out of her seat obscured the rest of it, drowning it out for the rest of the admirers.

“Hey, could you at _least_ let me finish?” Naokuu asked Utsugi with annoyance.

“Really?” Yukisa asked, ignoring Naokuu as she turned and walked to the end of the row between shelves where Utsugi, still ecstatic, spotted him.

“Hey!” Naokuu called out in further annoyance, only for it to suddenly fade as realization set in. “Wait…”

“Shin Kizuka!” Yukisa shouted. “You’ve got a _lot_ to explain for, mister! Skipping school without giving good reason… We were all worried _sick_!”

As Yukisa called out to him, Shin started walking. His hands were clenched into fists, his eyes were fixed in a stare more restless than ever before, and each step he took down the narrow passage was performed with anger, that emotion only growing as he moved closer to his blond-haired classmate.

“And that doesn’t even _begin_ to go into how–”

“Where is she?” the boy growled.

“W-What?” Yukisa stopped, blinking once in surprise.

“I said, where _is_ she!?”

All of a sudden, Shin grabbed Yukisa by the collar of her uniform, clenching the fabric tight as he pulled her close and death-glared her dead in the eyes. The girl yelped in surprise, and while her expression remained as harmlessly hostile as ever, it appeared somewhat fearful as well.

“S-Shin, what do you think you’re doing…?”

“Don’t you _dare_ change the subject, you _bitch_! Now tell me…” He lowered his head, trembling some before looking back up at her with wide eyes, almost glowing in their rage. “TELL ME WHERE MUCHISE IS!!”

“M-Muchise!? You’re still _on_ about her?”

“Damn _right_ I am! Now where _is_ she!?”

“How the hell should _I_ know? _None_ of us know where she is!”

“Liar!” Shin’s grip on Yukisa’s uniform tightened as he pulled her close, tiny bits of saliva coming from his mouth as he continued to yell. “You _say_ you don’t know, but you _do_ , because _you_ took her from me!”

Yukisa blinked in shock. “What? You seriously think _we_ did it?”

Shin didn’t respond to Yukisa’s legitimately surprised reaction, or at least not immediately. In that second-long lull, the rest of the girls left their seats and rushed over to the two of them, surrounding Shin on all sides.

Utsugi grabbed his right arm and held it tight, pulling on it. “Come on, Shin, that’s enough!” she pleaded in distress.

“Yeah!” Shirei agreed as she did the same with Shin’s left arm. “Let go of Yukisa this _instant_!” She grunted softly as she tried to pull his arm away.

“Please, Shin,” Chikuru calmly said as she rested her hand on Shin’s back. “This isn’t _like_ you.”

Akari silently nodded with a soft grunt, reaching for Shin also. “Please stop…”

“Get away!” Shin cried out, shaking Utsugi and Shirei free of him without much effort as he angrily faced Chikuru and Akari, his right hand leaving Yukisa and balling into a fist. “All of you stay _away_ from me!”

The girls backed up at Shin’s outburst, looking at him with even greater concern than before, all but Yukisa and Akari gasping. Utsugi held her right hand to her chest, while Chikuru held her left to hers, and Shirei’s eyes trembled behind her glasses as she looked at him. “Oh, Shin…”

“You _idiot_!” Yukisa exclaimed, looking at Shin with an angry glare. “Can’t you see they’re trying to help you!?”

“ _Help_ me? Yeah, right! All you’ve done is make my life a living hell, and I’m _tired_ of it! You hear me!? I _hate_ you! I hate you _all_!”

Shin’s words cut deep for the girls, as deep as his frenzied state. Shirei’s eyes trembled with greater intensity as he emphasized “hate”. At the same, Chikuru backed up with both hands to her chest, well on the verge of tears. Akari looked off to the side with a depressed pout, and Utsugi clenched her teeth as she fought back her own waterworks when he referenced all of them. Finally, Yukisa shook in his grip, sad and fearful but even then attempting to fight back with as stern a glare as she could muster.

“Now you’re gonna tell me where you’re keeping Muchise, or else I’ll _force_ it out of you! ARE WE _CLEAR_!?”

“That’s _enough_!”

With a shout and a preceding smack to one of the adjacent bookshelves, Shin’s ranting soon came to a halt. He stopped in his tracks, his expression calming considerably, though his eyes remained restless. Slowly, he looked forward past the end of the narrow passage between shelves. Yukisa, Utsugi, Shirei, Akari and Chikuru all did the same, turning their heads to face that same direction, with a startled expression not unlike Shin’s.

Standing before them, as he had been for the past minute, was Naokuu. He shot all six students a stern glare that could rival Yukisa’s worst, a displeased frown on his face as one hand pressed against the shelf and another rested in his pocket. He inhaled through his nostrils, and with that, his expression calmed too. Eyes closed and mouth smiling, though his voice sounded like he was holding back his own rant in the making.

“Alright. Now that everyone’s settled down, why don’t we all take a seat and get this questioning underway?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Channel letters are custom-made letters used for exterior signage of public and commercial buildings such as restaurants, typically made of either metal or plastic.  
> 2\. Yakitori is grilled skewered chicken done Japanese-style. This was what Yokoshima was actually ordering when he said “grilled chicken”.  
> 3\. The redhead and brunette Naokuu talks to upon entering Sadameicho are cameos for two of Jam-Orbital’s more frequently used OCs, Rose and Lily. Both girls show up in Jam’s public works as well as his “Jamsels in Distress” image packs, while Lily is the protagonist of his sandbox-style dress-up game “Bondage Lily”.


	3. Act 2

In no time at all, Shin and the girls complied with Naokuu’s words and sat down at the table. Utsugi once more sat on the side adjacent to the windows, with Yukisa next to her in Chikuru’s old seat. Shirei and Akari remained in their old seats as well, but scooted over to make room for Chikuru, who sat in Yukisa’s old seat. Taking the place of the chair Yukisa sat in on the one end was Shin, having dragged another chair over from the adjacent table to use as his own seat. And heading up the group, sitting in the chair on the other end with his jacket draped over it in the usual way, was Naokuu. Behind him on the other adjacent table were the girls’ belongings, school-bags resting in the middle of the table in a flat pile and the textbooks grouped together into two stacks of two books each.

“Let’s begin with the basic question,” Naokuu announced, holding a ballpoint pen in his right hand as the tip hovered over a piece of scrap paper. “What connection do each of you have to Muchise Yokoshima?”

“She’s a student here, obviously,” Akari bluntly stated.

“I think he’s asking if we’re friends with her,” Shirei replied.

“I dunno…” Chikuru said as she glanced up at the ceiling, her fingers touching her chin. “We don’t really know her well enough to be _friends_ …”

Shin remained quiet, his eyes closed and his arms crossed.

Utsugi put her arms on the desk and leaned forward some, looking at Naokuu. “The two of us ran track together since freshman year, so she’s _my_ friend, kind of…” She then looked down, her face lightly blushing in slight embarrassment.

“I see…” Naokuu wrote something down on the paper. うつぎ – 友人, or “Utsugi – friend”, followed by an arrow pointing right to another set of characters. 家へのアクセス? In other words, “Access to house?”

Yukisa kept a constant aloof, eyes-closed and frowning expression as the rest of the girls replied, only answering as Naokuu wrote down his note.

“Kawaoshi aside, none of us are friends with Yokoshima, or even acquaintances! She’s just a classmate, one who Kizuka over there has a crush on.” Yukisa glanced at Shin, who remained unresponsive.

“Okay, then answer me _this_ : what’s your girls’ connection to _Kizuka_? Besides being classmates.”

That question was enough to make Shin open his right eye, letting him pay more attention outside of mere listening.

Yukisa blushed, her aloofness breaking as she looked up at the ceiling and blinked, trying to fight the embarrassment of being put on the spot. “Uh, he’s an acquaintance, that’s all.”

Utsugi closed her eyes and smiled. “What Yukisa’s trying to say is that she’s got a _crush_ on him.”

Yukisa let out a tiny squeak of a mortified gasp, her mouth hanging slightly agape as her blush deepened.

“She’s not alone,” Utsugi added as she turned her head back, bringing her hands together as she too blushed. “I’ve got a crush on him too.”

Chikuru nodded, holding her right hand to her cheek as she blushed in infatuation. “Mm-hmm. You could say we’re his harem~.”

“Or more realistically, his admirers,” Shirei added, looking down and blushing.

Like the others, Akari blushed as well, holding an otherwise blank expression as she looked at Naokuu and replied. “He means everything to us, you see.”

“ _Really_ now…” Naokuu’s voice exuded a heavy air of apathy at their feelings, and as such he turned away from them, looking back at Shin. The boy’s eyes were closed again, and he too was blushing, though not out of any form of attraction. “Ehhh, I don’t see it.” He raised his hand and lightly jabbed at the air twice with his pen. “So is he packin’ down there or what?”

Shin’s eyes shot open and almost bugged out, a chill going up his spine as his face found itself overcome with an even more embarrassed blush. The question also made the girls blush. Utsugi, Shirei and Akari all looked down with their bright red faces, while Chikuru looked up, her hand still on her cheek, and Yukisa angrily turned to Naokuu.

“What makes you think we’d _know_ something like that, you perv!?”

“Whatever, just tell me what’s so _great_ about him.” He moved his hand back and forth, the pen moving with those simple jerks.

Yukisa re-crossed her arms and closed her eyes, looking up with a huff. “Hmph! Well it’s got nothing to do with his looks, _that’s_ for sure!”

Utsugi looked up and smiled wide. “Yeah, it’s more his _niceness_ than anything else!”

Shirei nodded with a soft grunt. “If Shin’s one thing, he’s _nice_.”

“ _Very_ nice,” Akari agreed.

“So nice~,” Chikuru replied dreamily.

Yukisa brought her head down some, opening her eyes and smiling softly, a brief chuckle coming out from behind her closed lips. “I’ll admit, Kizuka _is_ pretty nice…”

“I’m sorry, _what_!?”

Yukisa’s expression changed at Naokuu’s disbelief, her eyes closing for a second before glancing at the detective with her usual emotion of annoyance.

“He _just_ grabbed you by the collar and called you a bitch. I _wouldn’t_ call that ‘nice’.”

“Please, like _you’d_ know anything!” Yukisa shouted at Naokuu in frustration, lowering her head and glaring at him in kind. “You don’t even know how _terrible_ Sadameicho is, _do_ you?”

“I can tell just from looking at the place,” Naokuu nonchalantly replied, glaring back at Yukisa as he pressed the tip of his pen against the paper. “But please, _enlighten_ me.”

“To put it simply, this school is a pit. A real hellhole. Day in and day out, it’s nothing but delinquents fighting each other for so-called status, if not the fun of it. And every guy who _isn’t_ a delinquent or a wannabe just roots for them, without question.”

Yukisa’s assessment was accurate. While the library where the seven were was considerably quiet, the grounds outside the building were anything but. Several students, all male, lined the outer walls of the school, facing the main courtyard in back. The C-shaped crowd had two to three rows of students comprising it, both regular students and delinquents alike, as well as the so-called wannabes that had the look of a delinquent but none of the air. Regardless of status, their sights were all set on the event they surrounded: two big-shot delinquents duking it out as they were wont to do. One of them was Onimeshi, dressed in his open jacket with chest-wrap and combat boots as he brandished his nail-studded bat. His opponent was a younger delinquent that, like Onimeshi, looked like he didn’t belong in high school. He had black hair tied back into a super-thin ponytail that swung as he moved, a narrow gaze that made it hard to tell if it was natural or deliberate, a lanky build with a large scar across his chest, exposed by his unbuttoned jacket, and white cloth bandages wrapped around both hands, which gripped the handle of what appeared to be a wooden pole unprofessionally fashioned out of a tree branch, if the leaves on the one end were any indication. The two shifted on their feet, side to side, as they faced each other in readiness to attack. After a moment, Onimeshi’s opponent rushed him with a shout, about to jab him in the abdomen with the pole. However, just as he thrust, Onimeshi swiftly moved out of the way and raised the bat. Before the opponent could react, the tougher of the two swung his bat down, curving it to the left shortly after. In that one swoop, he snapped the pole in half and nailed the opponent right in his own abdomen. In the split second between the swing and impact, the opponent reacted, his eyes shooting wide open and his mouth letting out a frightened yelp, just before blood flew out of the latter from the connecting strike. The students on the sidelines cheered as the impact was made. Some jumped into the air, while others pumped their fists into it respectively, and still others clenched their fists in excitement. Their cheers were mostly incomprehensible, but some were audible, like a stray “Yeah!” and a thrilled “That’ll show ‘im!”

As the fight went on, away from her attention, Yukisa continued.

“It’s disgusting, having to put up with such immodesty.” She crossed her arms as she lowered her head. “The best us girls can do is deal with it in our own way.” She opened her eyes and glanced to the right. “For me, I thought I’d keep at least _some_ students in line as class representative.”

“Yeah, and _I_ thought applying myself in my studies would compensate for being stuck in a crappy school,” Shirei said, resting her head on her left hand. She opened her eyes and looked off to the right, just like Yukisa. “Which it _did_ , but still…”

“It was troubling, having to go through high school without a single boy paying any attention to you,” Chikuru bemoaned as she looked up at the ceiling, and then in the same direction as the other two. “Let alone any _cute_ ones.”

“It was nice having the support of our female classmates, sure…” Utsugi said as she too looked up at the ceiling, then joining the others in looking. “But having a _guy_ who ignored the delinquents too would’ve been nice.”

“I couldn’t take any more of it,” Akari confessed as she looked down at her lap. “I was ready to give up on _everything_ because of this wretched school…” She then raised her head and glanced to the right too. “But then…”

All five girls’ sights were set on one individual in particular, still sitting in place with closed eyes and crossed arms.

“Then we met Shin,” they said in unison.

“Here we go…” Naokuu quietly complained.

“We all became part of the same class in our third year, after our chances of transferring out had long passed.”

“To think someone like _him_ existed in our school, it was so wonderful it was almost unreal!”

“He offered help if we needed it, and asked _us_ in turn if _he_ had a bit of trouble.”

“Our interactions were brief, but they were more than memorable enough to make up for it.”

“As few as they were, they were enough to give us hope.”

“In all of Sadameicho’s male student body, Shin was the sole oasis of kindness in a sea of delinquency mania.”

As each girl spoke of Shin, each of them mentally recalled a certain interaction they had with him, each portrayed as a still image like a photo, bright but not exactly cheery or rose-colored. Yukisa’s mental image was of Shin coming into class through the door closer to the front of the room, cheerfully greeting her as she pointed her finger at him and scolded him for being late. Utsugi’s image was of Shin standing at his desk, eyes closed and right index finger pointing up as he talked about something – likely his views on Sadameicho and its delinquency – while she watched him from the side, her hands intertwined as she looked on longingly. Shirei’s image portrayed her helping Shin out with an unseen paper assignment, a sole textbook open before the both of them as she pointed at the paper and he looked at it with slight confusion. Chikuru’s image was just of them sitting at their desks, her looking dreamily at him with her hand against her cheek and him holding up a dropped eraser that she reached out for with her other hand. Akari’s image was of Shin in the rear doorway of the classroom, giving her a thumbs-up and an encouraging smile as she held a graded test paper in her hands, blushing brightly.

And as Shirei finished off their shared feelings of Shin, another image came to the girls’ minds, all following the general principle: Shin standing before them, his hands behind his back and a cheerful smile on his face, aimed at either of those girls in particular. A stark contrast to the brooding, arms-crossed Shin that was there now.

“You could even say we came together because we viewed it that way,” Utsugi chimed in response to Shirei’s metaphor.

“We may have our differences and get on each other’s nerves a lot, but that won’t change what we all share in the end.”

After Yukisa said those words, she and the rest of the girls turned to Naokuu, smiling and speaking in unison once more.

“Our love for Shin Kizuka.”

“And _that’s_ why you did it.”

The girls all blinked, their smiles fading as their faces became overcome with various emotions; confusion for Utsugi and Chikuru, surprise for Yukisa and Shirei, and the simple lack of a small but otherwise visible smile for Akari. They all looked at Naokuu, who grinned wide at his own words.

“It all makes sense now. Your love for Kizuka is great. So great it corrupted you, and corrupted you _deep_. Deep enough that you’d act hostile to any threat towards that love. Up to and including Muchise Yokoshima.”

The girls’ reactions changed in kind at Naokuu went on. Yukisa was offended. Utsugi was hurt. Akari, silently but noticeably the same. Shirei, slightly less offended than Yukisa. And Chikuru, considerably nervous. Even Shin let down his disinterested poker face to pay attention to the detective’s speech, his eyes open and his mouth hanging slightly agape.

“To kidnap her from her own house and hide her away, using the yakuza battles as a convenient cover, all to keep your precious Kizuka to yourselves…” Naokuu tapped the ballpoint tip of his pen against the paper a few times before looking up with another wide grin. “It’s dastardly enough to be legit.” He closed his eyes as he took his fingers off the bottom end of the pen, letting it fall to the table. “So what do you say, girls? Care to prove my theory right?” He opened his eyes, his grin shrinking to a smirk.

“Like _hell_!” Yukisa pressed her hands against the table as she stood from her seat, the force of her motion pushing her chair back. “We _didn’t_ take Yokoshima, and that’s final!”

“Enough lies!”

Shin’s shout and his own forceful propulsion upwards from his seat caught Yukisa’s attention, forcing her to look back at him as he clenched his fists in rejuvenating anger.

“You girls were _jealous_ of me and Muchise, admit it! That I viewed her as a _friend_ , as my true _love_! Unlike you annoying kindness-starved excuses for admirers! Only _you_ would take her, if only to keep your sorry dreams of a future with me alive! I mean, why _else_ would you tell me to forget about her right after you did away with her, HUH!?”

At the sudden pause in his rant, Shin could see the reactions of those he delivered it to. Utsugi was scared by Shin’s outburst, backed up against her chair without moving either it or out of it. Chikuru was more hurt than scared, though she appeared to be holding herself back from calming him to the best of her ability. Shirei was cautious, though she had fear in her eyes too. Yukisa just glared at him in further offense. Akari stared down at her lap, holding back tears. And finally, Naokuu just sat with his elbow on the table and his hand against his cheek, staring at him in disinterest.

“…You done?” the detective asked, breaking the few-seconds lull.

“Y-Yeah…” Shin quietly said as he sat back down.

“Yukisa’s right, though,” Utsugi said as she turned to Naokuu. “We weren’t the ones that abducted Muchise, for real!”

“You don’t think someone else could’ve done it?” Yukisa asked, glancing at Naokuu. “Like the yakuza?”

“I already checked; it wasn’t them.”

Yukisa’s glance turned away as she closed her eyes. “Even so, we don’t know who did it for sure.”

“And for the record, us telling Shin to forget about Muchise had nothing to do with it," Utsugi said.

“We were just trying to make him feel better, that’s all…” Chikuru looked down, her hurt from Shin’s outburst lingering.

“I had a _feeling_ that would backfire,” Shirei remarked, glancing at Chikuru with her arms crossed.

Akari just softly nodded with an even softer whimper accompanying it.

“I see what you’re trying to say, but that still doesn’t disqualify you as suspects.”

“Why _not_!?” Yukisa rebutted at Naokuu.

“Seriously? You can deny having Muchise all you want, that doesn’t prove you didn’t take her.” Naokuu lowered his head a tad and closed his eyes, smiling. “Us detectives don’t _trust_ vocal assertions as much as we do hard evidence. The only way for me to be certain you’re innocent like you claim is if I _know_ you aren’t keeping her hidden away somewhere. That’s why…” Naokuu raised his head and opened his eyes, looking at the girls with calm intent. “…I’d like your permission to search each of your residences for clues to Muchise’s whereabouts. If there’s nothing there I can use, you’ll be absolved of all suspicion. Sound good?”

After taking a second to digest Naokuu’s request, three of the five girls turned to one another. Utsugi, Shirei and Chikuru all started talking amongst one another.

“What do you think?”

“I dunno…”

“It seems rather invasive…”

Akari, meanwhile, just kept looking down, no longer on the verge of crying but still uneasy. Shin didn’t respond at all, simply remaining seated as he slowly calmed down. Yukisa, on the other hand, kept digesting the request, only to make an exclamation in the middle of the others’ conversation.

“Wait a minute! You’re a _cop_ , aren’t you? Why do you need our permission to search our places? Can’t you just get a warrant for that?”

“Huh?” Naokuu blinked once, at first unresponsive to Yukisa’s questioning. But then the reaction came. The hand his head rested on slowly moved away from his cheek, his eyes widened in shock, and his face grimaced in further realization, all as a single thought came to mind. “ _Oh shit, I_ do _need one of those, don’t I!?_ ”

Yukisa huffed quietly as she turned back, crossing her arms as she closed her eyes. “If you can’t investigate us through the proper channels, then we have no reason to let you–!”

“We don’t have _time_ for warrants!”

“Huh?” Yukisa opened her eyes as she looked back at Naokuu.

Naokuu stood up from his seat, his hands pressing against the hardwood tabletop before shooting upwards and grasping at the air as he began his own rant. “Don’t any of you _realize_ how bureaucratic the criminal justice system is? There’s so much paperwork, none of us can get anything done for _weeks_! It’s not exactly cut-and-dry!” He jerked his hands downward a few times for emphasis as he kept wringing the air. “If I went through the proper channels, it’d take _forever_ to get a warrant!” He clenched his hands into fists and held them close to his chest, his eyes shutting for those few seconds he retained that gesture. “And with Muchise’s father as part of our ranks, time is of the utmost essence!” His eyes shot open and his hands moved back, once more wringing the air in physical articulation. “You understand!?” Just then, and just as quickly, he slammed his hands down on the table. “We need Muchise rescued before it’s too late, and without warrants is the only way we can _possibly_ do it!” He started panting, gradually calming himself down from his spiel.

In response, the others at the table stared at Naokuu, with varying degrees of emotion. For starters, Yukisa looked at him with disbelief, one eye more open than the other and her mouth curved into a disgusted and confused frown. Utsugi blinked once as she looked on in astonishment, neither positive nor negative but striking regardless.

Chikuru smiled nervously, eyes closed, mouth open, and a small drop of sweat on her temple. Shirei scowled as she glared at Naokuu, unsure of his legitimacy. Akari’s expression was as indifferent as usual but still had a degree of shock embedded within it.

Shin’s stare was the most shocked of all, his eyes wide with decreased restlessness from before, and his mouth agape as it was earlier. His disbelief was great, so much so that it felt like a dinging bell as opposed to an emphatic thud.

“ _No way…_ ” he mentally bemoaned as he looked at Naokuu’s own reaction. “ _This guy’s supposed to be a cop_?”

The detective had on a forced smile that twitched with his right eye, coupled with an occasional between-the-teeth grunt; a desperate move to try and play it cool following his speech.

In the minute or two following their reactions, as Shin and Naokuu remained in place, the girls leaned across the table, joined in an impromptu grouping. They whispered to one another, the noises indicating such being all that the two men heard.

Once they finished, they moved back to their seats, with Yukisa standing to face Naokuu once again. “Alright, Mister Detective, as crazy as that explanation was, we’ll let you search our houses like you said, on _one_ condition.” She held up her index finger.

“Hn. Just one condition, huh?” Naokuu said with a smirk.

“Correct. It’s very simple, really. All you have to do is accompany the five of us on a group outing tomorrow night. Some quality time spent with _us_ should be enough to justify your warrant-less search, wouldn’t you agree?”

Naokuu closed his eyes as he quickly thought up his response. “Hmmmm, not 100%, but if that’s all it’ll take to get answers, that’s fine by me.” He removed his hands from the table as he stood up straight, facing Yukisa and nodding once with a returning grin. “You’ve got yourself a deal. So where’ll we be meeting?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet,” Yukisa said as she slipped a hand into one of her skirt pockets and rummaged around. “But I’ll send you the details when I _do_.” She then pulled out her smartphone, bearing a bright yellow body with a few charms hanging off one of the corners, and handed it to Naokuu. “So if you’d be so kind as to give me your number?”

“Sure thing.” Naokuu took the phone from Yukisa. “Should I put my _name_ in with it, or…”

“Just ‘detective’ is fine.”

“Figured as much…”

During Naokuu and Yukisa’s exchange, Shin watched the two of them for a moment. Then, slowly, he scooted his chair back and prepared to stand up. Just as he was lifting himself out of the seat…

“Not so fast!”

Shin stopped in the middle of his motion with a soft grunt, a startled expression coming across his face as he looked at the others. The girls looked right at him, while Naokuu just stood to the side, putting his number in Yukisa’s phone.

“You’re coming with us too, Kizuka,” Yukisa continued.

“What!? Why _me_?”

Yukisa turned her body to face Shin like her head was, placing her right hand on her hip. “Last I checked, our detective friend’s not the _only_ one who thinks we kidnapped Yokoshima. Not to mention you said some rather hurtful things to us today.” She jerked her head to the side gently, her twintails fluttering haughtily. “It’s only logical that spending time with us should be your penalty.”

“Yeah,” Shirei agreed, tilting her head some as she looked at Shin with a smug grin. “Maybe _then_ we won’t come off as such life-wrecking nuisances to you~.”

“So whaddaya say, Shin?” Utsugi exclaimed with her usual cheerfulness, slamming both of her hands down on Shin’s right shoulder as she smiled at him. “You in or what?”

Chikuru joined Utsugi from the other side, gently placing her hands on Shin’s upper arm. She said nothing, but she smiled at him with a playful chuckle.

Shin grunted softly at Utsugi’s contact, glancing at both girls before looking down with closed eyes and grumbling under his breath. “Fine…” he said reluctantly. “As long as it gets you off my back…”

“Mmm, getting rid of us won’t be _that_ easy~,” Chikuru said with a giggle.

“Still, tomorrow night’s gonna be a blast!” Utsugi exclaimed, shaking Shin as her hands pushed down on his shoulder. Shin grunted some in annoyance at the girl’s force, trying to shake her off with much futility.

Shirei giggled some at the two girls’ response to Shin’s agreement, while Akari simply smiled and Yukisa watched them with a larger grin. “So it’s settled, then. We’ll have our little outing tomorrow, and after _that_ , we’ll prove to you that we _don’t_ have Yokoshima.”

“I still doubt that!” Naokuu remarked, turning to Yukisa as he handed back her phone.

“Yeah, whatever.” Yukisa swiped her phone out of Naokuu’s hand, the detective’s vexed expression unchanging, and looked down the screen. After looking over Naokuu’s information, she flipped back to the main menu, the digital clock above the grouping of app icons reading 17:19, or 5:19 P.M. “That said, I believe we’ve spent enough time here.” She lowered her phone and turned to the rest of the girls. “What do you say we all head home and get rested up for tomorrow?”

“Sounds like a plan!” Shirei said with a nod.

“I can hardly wait!” Utsugi exclaimed as she pressed against Shin some more, inadvertently making him more annoyed.

“Neither can _I_ ~.” Chikuru nodded as well.

“Same here,” Akari finished off.

Naokuu didn’t say a word through their dialogue, instead slowly inhaling, and then exhaling, through his nostrils, sighing under his breath as his irritation lessened up.

Soon enough, the girls collected their bags from the nearby table and stashed their textbooks away within them. Once their belongings were all accounted for, they grouped together and took off, from the table to the library’s main entrance. Yukisa led the way in front, paying Shin and Naokuu no attention. Shirei and Akari followed behind, neither looking back. Utsugi and Chikuru, however, turned to wave them off as they held up the back.

“See you boys tomorrow~.” Chikuru winked at them, waving gently with her hand at chest-level.

“Don’t you try and skip out on us, okay?” Utsugi’s wave, meanwhile, was higher and wider, using the whole arm instead of just the hand.

“Hn. Like we _would_.” Naokuu simply raised his hand to them, looking on at them blankly.

Shin didn’t wave or speak at all to them as they left, just glancing back. Once they were far enough away, he returned his glance forward, while Naokuu lowered his hand, bringing it to his pocket.

“Welp, there’s no reason for _me_ to stick around. Guess I’d better head out too.” Naokuu turned around and grabbed his jacket by the collar, slinging it over his shoulder. But before he could take another step out…

“Hold on a minute.”

He stopped, gasping softly.

Shin’s voice was soft and calm in comparison to what Naokuu had heard of him earlier, startling him enough that he didn’t turn back to face the boy, instead listening to what he had next to say.

“You said you were investigating Muchise’s disappearance, right?”

Naokuu blinked, his slightly agape mouth closing as he snapped out of his startled expression. “Uh… yeah. It’s the whole reason I came down here.” He turned some, looking at Shin as he remained seated. “Why’re you asking me something that obvious, anyway?”

There was no immediate response, but nevertheless, the wait was short.

“Thank you.”

Naokuu quietly gasped in surprise.

“To tell you the truth, I was afraid I was the only one who bothered to _do_ something about it. I was _certain_ I was the only one. But now…” Shin looked up at the detective, the corners of his eyes brimming with the small but definite beginnings of tears, which tinged his voice with further gratitude. “I’m _glad_ someone else cares that much. _Especially_ a policeman like you. I never thought you guys would get involved in this…” He sniffled some.

Naokuu continued looking at Shin, the indifferent expression he gave him before now changed. Like the evening sky changing colors from a dull gray shine to a soft purple whose tint extended to the library corridor, the change was subtle. His stare was no longer blank. Instead, there was understanding, possibly enlightenment, at this side he saw before him. One that he doubted was there despite the insistence it was, and only now proved its existence. To that side, he gave the boy a small smile of returned gratitude.

“Not a problem, kid. It’s what we’re supposed to do.”

With that, the detective turned around and headed to the end of the corridor, between the shelves and the desks, his back to the boy he left behind for the evening. Shin looked on in silence for those next several seconds, dwelling on Naokuu’s response in whatever way he felt necessary in that time. Once the detective reached the end of the corridor, about to turn, he stood up with a sigh, wiping his tears.

“I should probably go too.”

********

The turn of the car keys which started the engine. His left hand that turned the keys bringing the transmission lever down one notch from P to R. His right hand that stayed on the wheel gripping the 2 o’clock position as his foot slowly pressed down against the gas pedal. And a backing turn out onto the street between the empty 3-car parking lot and Sadameicho High, barely anyone going out the back entrance besides the injured ponytailed delinquent limping along the graffitied stone wall. Naokuu’s Civic came to a stop once it was aligned with the street, and then it moved forward, driving off and leaving the high school behind.

The clouds that persisted throughout the entire day up above still persisted in the early evening hours, the orange glow of the impending sunset instead being filtered as pink in the spots pervading the purple overcast. It was enough that the streetlamps lighting the streets and sidewalks were on, allowing the vehicles traveling the roads in the pre-rush hour period to travel safely. By then, Naokuu’s car cruised the speed limit along the red-paved westbound lane of the road parallel to Shuto Expressway No. 3, soaring through the intersection with Gaien-nishi Street in the seconds before the yellow light turned red.

Moments after driving through, Naokuu moved his right hand off the steering wheel, the left staying put as he pinched his first smoke of the evening between his thumb and index. As he pulled the cigarette away, he blew out the smoke, and then began talking to himself.

“Here I am, _this_ close to finding Muchise… And yet I’m _nowhere_. Tomorrow’s that get-together with my prime suspects, and that Kizuka kid they love so damn much. _That’s_ gonna be a drag… And after that’s the make-or-break point.”

In spite of his speech, he kept focused on driving, the sights on either side moving past him as he went along. Buildings and trees on the left, the expressway and its steel vertical supports to the right.

“Either I find her in one of their houses, or it’s back to the drawing board.” He brought the cig back to his mouth, inhaling slowly as the light at the end flared up in response. Shortly after, he returned his right hand to the wheel and exhaled another puff of smoke. “There’s no way a motive that sound could be wrong. I swear…” He gripped the wheel tighter, his brow furrowing. “I’ll be _pissed_ if it _is_.” After a while, he sighed. “Whatever. The sooner I get this done, the sooner I can move on to the rest of ‘em…”

And so, he continued on driving along his route back home, the cloud-obscured pink glow growing dimmer on the western horizon as time passed.

********

Later that evening, at around dusk, Shin had returned to his own home, his own bedroom, tired after an hour of walking from Roppongi to Nakano as he usually did. Without even bothering to switch on the overhead light or take off his school uniform, he collapsed onto his bed, rolling over so he was facing the ceiling with arms spread. He sighed in relaxation, and then opened his eyes as he stared up at the plaster overhead.

**“I can’t believe it. I’m _so_ close to getting her back, and I have to wait another day just to see her again…” **

He mentally sighed.

**“It’s only one more day, but… I can’t _imagine_ what she’s going through now. I want to find her safe and sound, but…”**

His brow furrowed, a scowl forming across his face as he clenched his fist tight.

**“What if they _hurt_ her? What if they _disposed_ of her!? Or worse…”**

The clenching stopped, and his hand reopened.

**“What if they’re _right_? What if they _don’t_ have Muchise? I may never see her again if that’s the case…”**

He started tearing up again, his eyes and lips quivering. But before he could even shed the forming tears, he closed his eyes and shook his head.

**“No, there’s no way! That detective said he was looking for her too. There’s no way he’d give up now, even if the girls are innocent like they said.”**

He sat upright in his bed, looking down at his lap in the darkness.

**“Still, if _he’s_ the one who’ll find her, what good am _I_? What good is my promise to Mister Yokoshima if all the effort I went to is useless? What _then_?”**

He stood up and walked over to the window by his bed, taking slow steps towards it.

**“I want to be the one to rescue Muchise, the first one she sees the moment she’s saved. And then…”**

He stopped at the window and pulled back one of the curtains, looking out with exasperation. As he did, he mentally sighed again.

**“Maybe I’m overthinking all of this. She’ll be fine, I’m certain of it. I just have to wait one more day. That’s all I have to do.”**

He smiled softly, yet with confidence, as he looked at the nighttime skyline out his window, the dim green glow of the city lights battling against the dark violet sky hanging above.

**“Oh, but what a long wait _that’s_ gonna be…”**

********

Not unlike the view of Shinjuku past the Kanda River that Shin spent his last waking moments for the day admiring, on purpose or otherwise, the darkening night sky and dim city lights clashed against one another in a subdued contrast elsewhere in Tokyo, including Akasaka in the Minato Ward. Another conflict between opposite sides went on there, below the Akasaka Biz Tower and its adjacent skyscrapers, several of their floors still with the lights on. Another yakuza battle. Though faint and sparse in comparison to the battles that came before it, the sounds of clashing swords and gunfire were all too obvious to be mistaken for anything else.

Elsewhere, in that same area, a scream rang out, louder than the noises of the weapons, or so it felt. The feminine scream, a distressed and wordless cry for help in its basest form, only lasted for a few seconds, the remainder cut short in an instant. Not by the motion of a weapon, however. Instead, it was a swifter motion. A wad of cloth, fairly large for your average wad, pink in color, and soft and stretchy to boot, forcing its way into the poor woman’s open mouth. Moments after her cry was unceremoniously ceased, she clenched her teary eyes shut and shook her head, groaning behind the oversized gag. “Mmmmpph!”

“It’s best if you don’t struggle.”

The girl whimpered as her shaking slowed to a stop, whimpering at the voice that told her to do so. As she did, a pair of gloved hands from behind her pulled multiple cloth bandanas over her face, the outermost one also pink with a slight purple tinge.

“There’ll be time for _that_ when we get back~.”

Having cornered their victim, a waitress with short black hair dressed in a pink beige uniform with purple chest bow and pink headband, in a side alley to a nearby brick-walled restaurant, three women surrounded her in the narrow corridor. The one speaking to her, a ponytailed woman in a magenta leotard, scarf, and thigh-high stockings, leaned in and pulled a short leash attached to the collar around her neck, gently rubbing the outside of her gag cover with her index finger, the motion making the girl whimper again. The second, a slightly younger twintailed girl in a pastel purple tankini with black opera gloves and stockings, tied the bandanas in back with one hand while the other rested on her hip. The third, a long-haired woman in a white robe and matching thigh-highs, held the rope binding the girl in place taut, keeping watch over the group. All three women wore over-the-nose masks and had eyes partially lidded just enough to show off their eyeshadow.

Tazuna, Fuji and Nawa.

After tying the bandanas in place, Fuji turned to Nawa. “How many does this make _now_ , Mistress?”

Nawa blinked and glanced back at Fuji. “This makes thirty, meaning we’re halfway to our maximum quota.”

Fuji blinked in surprise, pulling her hand back. “Wow, we captured _that_ many already?”

“Maybe we should slow down,” Tazuna said, pulling the leash of her victim as she turned to face Nawa too. “Or at _least_ give me more time to break all these cuties in. I haven’t even finished things up with the _last_ several yet.”

“In that case, you’re free to stay behind tomorrow. Fuji and I will take care of securing the target, while _you_ focus on base conditioning. Is that good with you?”

“Of course, Mistress Nawa.” Tazuna lightly bowed to the woman.

“So where’s our next target gonna be, anyways?” Fuji asked.

“Tomorrow’s battle will take place in Shinjuku, so our next catch should be _there_. Now, if you have nothing more to say, let us return.”

“Right!” Tazuna and Fuji replied in unison.

As the girls finished their chat, the cloudy sky above Akasaka began to clear. The clouds’ purple tone faded away as the dark blue night sky, forming a gradient with the green glow of the city below, came into view in its place. Hanging in the sky was the moon, transitioning from a first-quarter half moon to waxing gibbous. Before long, a long enough break formed in the clouds to showcase the satellite in all its glory.

It was then that the women took off, making a large escape leap into the air with their bodies forming silhouettes against the moon. From their positions, Nawa took to the right while Fuji took to the left. That left Tazuna in the middle, her right hand clutching the ropes binding their target at back of her waist as she carried her along. She looked forward, her red orbs locked in a half-lidded gaze that looked like it couldn’t be fazed by anything. She hung in the air, waiting for the perfect place to make landing before launching again, and after several seconds of doing so, her gaze narrowed. Accompanying that intensified focus, she grunted softly, in what sounded like the stifled beginning of a low, evil laugh, accompanied by an appropriately matching smirk hidden underneath her mask.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. The Akasaka Biz Tower is a 39-story skyscraper in Minato, Tokyo that was constructed in 2008. It is a high-rise that is officially part of the Akasaka Sacas commercial complex in Minato’s Akasaka neighborhood.


End file.
